Monday, February 11, 2013

Snapshot 2-2-13: Nana & Boppa and Duck Cupcakes

My mom and dad took a quick trip to Idaho to see my grandma and decided to spend Friday night with us on their way back to California. They made a trip to Costco and showed up with many pizzas, much salad, and pie and ice cream and fed most of the Utah Youngberg/Green clan. We finished with lots of games. I fell asleep at the kitchen table in the middle of a rousing (well, apparently, not so rousing) game of Settlers with my dad and Josh. It was a sad night, though, because my dad beat me at Big Boggle. That was a shame, indeed.

The other excitement was that Maisie got to meet my mom and dad. Dad is a dog whisperer. I don't think he's ever met a dog that doesn't adore him. Maisie was certainly no exception, and it made me happy to watch.

Earlier in the week, we had our SEP conferences at the elementary school. We usually let the kids choose a book from the bookfair after their conferences. Kate chose a cupcake decorating book and was determined to make something from the book over the weekend. After four hours of shopping, baking and decorating, we had some fairly flat but pretty cute duck cupcakes. They were so fun to make that the teenagers downstairs decided to come up and make some, too.

This is about half of the ten-ish teenagers who were playing games in the basement. They are honestly amazing kids. I am grateful grateful grateful that Josh has good friends in his life. (We also made pretzels, finishing about 10:40 pm. A couple of the kids didn't eat any. When I asked why, they said they had already started their fasts. "Those are some good kids," says the woman who ate many pretzels and duck cupcakes at 11 pm.) (Also, when one of Josh's friends saw the clock and saw it was 11, the house cleared in four minutes. Ten kids with 11 pm curfews who don't complain about it or try to push the curfew envelope? "Is this for real?" wonders the woman who did not have a teenager-hood quite like this one.)